Shelton "Shifty" Sharpe may be a con artist, but he's not a violent criminal. What he lacks in ruthlessness, he makes up for in ingenuity. He's going to need to be at his most clever to escape his captivity to a black magician. He overreaches himself when he tries to pass of a replica as the magical artifact he's commissioned to find. Shifty is taken captive by Damien Rathschild and forced to become his minion to pay back the debt. Can he bide his time waiting for a chance to escape? Or will enduring the Crucible and Damien's demands push him over the edge?